Heat of the moment...

[guardsintheory]

Mat is walking into the Gauche today. This is not the face of someone who is happy with his life. Understandably, too. He's covered in mud, very damp, shivering, has a rip in his jeans and a scraped-up knee... and he's only wearing one shoe

Comments

[nogettingback]

Hey, Tay. Have a cousin, pulling up beside you in the Camino and sort of following you. Luckily, it's a backstreet, so he's not terribly concerned that anyone's gonna bitch about his slow driving. "Okay, so Francine went back to Bible Camp," he says without preamble. "What's the liklihood that he'll come back with the whole damn Boston infantry?"

[archangelet]

"Pretty fucking high," Tay says with a glower. "He's a fucking idiot, I wish that girlfriend of his had gotten to kill him."

She pauses, and looks rather like she's trying to not say something, and then blurts out, "Your car is ugly as hell, you know." And after saying it, she promptly looks like she'd like to hit something because the universe sucks. "I hate this week. It sucks."

[nogettingback]

That first part is pretty normal Tay response, so it goes on without note. He's about to talk about how Francis pretty much broke all over him the last time he saw him, but then Tay goes on and he just sits there and gapes, after hitting the brakes to stop the car.

"Okay. Leave Janine out of this," he says, more than a little defensively. "What the hell's up?"

[archangelet]

Tay, at this point, stops walking and just buries her face in her hands. That alone is a weird enough reaction. "Sorry," she says, muffled by the fact that she hates everything and is hiding. "I just-- since New Years, I keep saying everything I think. Like, opinions and stuff, I just say them, and I'm sorry I think your car's ugly, but you're just such a fag and I really can't help it I'm sorry."

Yes, all this is said muffled by her hands. Her ears, however, are bright pink, which pretty much proves that most of the reason she's doing this is that she's blushing.

And then you can see that she's blushing, because she shifts her hands to clap them over her mouth just as she starts saying something else, and she goes from pink to practically red.

...someone may be thinking about her best friend.

[nogettingback]

Aaron sporfles. Normal people would be kind of insulted that she just called him a fag in the same breath as an apology. Also, she's blushing. Oh, Jesusfuck. It's like a sign of the coming Armageddon.

He has to bury his face into the steering wheel and grit his teeth to keep from cackling, because it's probably heartless and cruel to laugh at your cousin's horrible fate, but... It's just so damn funny.

"Did you.... Did you fall into a magic well or something?" He tries to ask in all seriousness, whole simultaneously holding back more laughter.

[archangelet]

"No," Tay says after a moment, looking disdainful. "That's stupid. There are no magic wells in Chicago, dumbass." She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. Gloves are for sissies. "I just woke up and started saying things and I can't stop it and do you know how hard it is to avoid Buffy in that place?"

There's a pause, and then her hands go back over her mouth before whatever is garbled into them can come out discernibly.

[nogettingback]

Okay, Aaron can't hold it on in a longer, although he has the decency to laugh silently, but his shoulders shaking kinda gives it away. He's sure as hell not sobbing against that steering wheel.

"I don't know what to tell you," he says, finally lifting his head, his mouth twisted into a dorky smile. "Except... Tay, what're your thoughts on Buffy."

You can feel free to punch him in the jaw, Tay. He deserves it.

[archangelet]

Oh, Aaron. There's enough instinct to THROTTLE HIM that she doesn't bother covering up her mouth, instead opting to, as the narration suggested, punch him in the jaw. Not hard enough to seriously damage anything, but it's sure as hell going to hurt, and it's sure as hell going to bruise.

"I think she's amazing and beautiful and way too good for me and fuck you, asshole!" she finishes, restraining the urge to break his nose. "Should kick the shit out of you, you fucking jerk."

[nogettingback]

Aaron makes a pained sound and jerks back at the punch and then proceeds to snicker. Oh, it hurts. It hurts like hell, but totally worth it. ...He really does adore you, Tay, but sometimes you're just such an easy target.

"Okay, first of all... Ow," he says, rubbing his jaw. "Second of all, have you ever thought that maybe that's the point of this exercise? I mean... Tay, you do have this thing where you never talk about anything." Of course, that sounds like hokey and Tales From the Book of Virtue for his liking, so he snorts and shrugs it off, "Or maybe Chicago just likes bullshitting you. I dunno."

[archangelet]

"Why the hell should I talk about things?" Tay asks, and it's clear that yes, she really does mean this. "I mean, what's the fucking point when it won't do anything but make things extremely awkward with the first person I ever really gave a shit about enough to call a friend?"

...oh god, that's a bit more than she meant to say, but she just sighs. It's not like she can control it. Unfortunately.

[nogettingback]

Aaron stops rubbing his jaw and holds up his hands. "Okay, okay. The point, it's been received and noted. I didn't just mean that though, but whatever."

Hell if Aaron knows what this is. He ruffles his own hair and frowns. "I thought it was only wanderers that got the weird shit."

[archangelet]

Tay's mind immediately jumps to other places when he mentions that he didn't just mean that, and her hands go over her mouth again.

Some things really shouldn't be blurted out like that. They hurt too much to say even when no one else can hear them.

She takes a few deep breaths. Says a few more incoherently muffled things. ...This is clearly not working well. She's just going to glare at Aaron half-heartedly while refusing to move her hands for the time being.

[nogettingback]

Aaron cringes. Okay, that might be a little bit callous, even for him. He mutters an apology and runs the back of his neck awkwardly.

"..You want a ride somewhere? Far, far away from the Gauche. We can see a movie and you can make harsh, judgmental opinions on all the couples and I can laugh at their expense."

...Yeah, Aaron's a nice guy.

[archangelet]

Tay grins crookedly, and nods. "You're still a jackass, but you're not a bad cousin," she decides. And then she makes a face. "God, I sound like a fucking Hallmark card."

...for a very crass definition of Hallmark, maybe.

[archangelet]

Tay removes her hands long enough to say, "You're the best cousin ever," and then keeps one over her mouth as she moves around Aaron to climb into his car.

She stops halfway through the movement and adds, "I'm not sorry I punched you, though. Jackass."

She loves you, Aaron.